Page 40 - Yuan Dynasty Ceramics

Chapter 07 (pp. 330-385)_Layout 1 7/7/10 5:42 PM Page 369

too, often referred to as crimson, was the hue preferred ordinary Mongols, was used regularly on utilitarian and
for Mongol imperial clothing. trade wares of the Yuan era as well.
One discovery of Yuan copper-red-glazed ware is par- The interest in underglaze red during the Yuan dynasty
ticularly worthy of mention because it provides dated appears to be directly related to the Mongols’ use of crim-
proof for this glaze’s use during the Yuan dynasty: two son as an imperial color and sign of high status. The rela-
statuettes of court officials, whose copper red glaze cov- tive scarcity of Yuan dynasty wares painted in underglaze
ers their hats, robes, and shoes. These two figures, prized red may be attributable to difficulties in maintaining the
Yuan porcelains in the collection of Jiangxi Provincial atmosphere in the kiln necessary to produce a rich red
Museum in Nanchang, come from the tomb of Madame color—a red seen, for example, on a hoof-shaped flask
Ling, which has been dated to 1338 on the basis of in- with dragon motif now in the collection of the Palace
scriptions on other ceramics in the tomb. 168 Museum, Beijing (see Fig. 7.39). Other examples include
the imperial quality wine jar from the Baoding treasure,
Underglaze Painted Porcelain Produced at Jingdezhen
which features a clear, rich cobalt blue but an indistinct,
Research on excavated underglaze wares, especially runny, copper red; the statuettes from Madame Ling’s
those from the Sinan shipwreck and Doufulong site, sug- tomb mentioned earlier; and a pear-shaped bottle
gests that private kilns at Jingdezhen first experimented (yuhuchun ping) with vibrant underglaze red splashes that
with underglaze iron brown and copper red glazes in the was unearthed during excavations from April 2002 to
1320s, then tried cobalt blue. Three small sauce dishes November 2003 at Jininglu in Inner Mongolia. Although
from Jingdezhen found in the Sinan shipwreck, for ex- the walled city at Jininglu was established in 1192, the
ample, have underglaze painted decoration in iron brown dates for wares at this site are not conclusive. It is, how-
(see Fig. 7.43). Also recovered from the wreck was a ever, considered to be a Yuan dynasty site and the under-
molded oval dish embellished with a molded leaf motif glaze copper red bottle is the most important find there
and poem executed in underglaze copper red (see Fig. to date. 172
7.42). 169 It is significant that no blue and white porcelain Despite the popularity of this color in Yuan China,
was found in the cargo of this ship; it seems to indicate then, the volatility of copper pigment during firing may
that blue and white was not being produced in have led artisans to prefer using cobalt for underglaze
Jingdezhen during the first quarter of the fourteenth cen- painted decoration. Given these technical difficulties,
tury. This may have been because the cobalt used during too, some copper red decorated ceramics once attributed
the fourteenth century was a valuable import from Persia to the Yuan are now more frequently given an early Ming
(now in or near Iran) and probably was not readily avail- date—a shift probably justified due to their close resem-
able, especially for experimental use. blance to dated, excavated early Ming examples such as a
It is believed that the first imperial blue and white was well-known underglaze red decorated kendi in the collec-
created between 1328 and 1332. This view is supported by tion of the Victoria and Albert Museum and molded
the account of the seafarer Wang Dayuan, who embarked wares with copper red glaze found in several collections
on two voyages from Quanzhou in present-day Fujian such as the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Nelson-Atkins
province between 1328 and 1339. As mentioned previ- Museum of Art, and the Palace Museum, Beijing.
ously, his book, published in 1349, notes that fifteen places Pre-Yuan use of cobalt blue for decoration on Chinese
in Southeast Asia were importing blue and white porcelain ceramics is a complex issue still being researched. Tang
by the middle of the fourteenth century. 170 blue and white was made at the Yangzhou and Gongxian
In the Tang, Song, Jin, and Yuan periods, most under- kilns, in Shaanxi (near Tongchuan) and Henan provinces,
glaze painted wares from the Gong Xian, Changsha, respectively. Examples unearthed at sites in the interior
Cizhou, and Jizhou kilns were not treasured at court. The of China include stupa-shaped high-fired vessels with un-
pigment of choice on these common wares was iron derglaze blue floral decor and a “field-hockey”player with
brown, although copper red or green and cobalt blue a ball, both found in an eighth- or ninth-century Tang
were used on rare occasions. 171 Iron, which fired brown, tomb at Zhengzhou in Henan province; as well as shards
and copper, which usually produced a green color, had with floral motifs found at Yangzhou, an important Tang
long been used as underglaze pigments on common do- port in Jiangsu province, from which the ninth-century
mestic wares in China, most notably on tenth-century ship that sank near Belitung, Indonesia, may have sailed.
Tang dynasty stoneware made at the Tonguan kilns near The first intact, securely provenanced examples of Tang
Changsha in Hunan province. Brown, the color worn by blue and white were three pieces from this shipwreck dis-

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